Jan 23, 2015

Five Things About Me | Friday Five

Happy Friday everyone! It has been a long week. It had a bit of a rough start and middle but has finally started to level out. With that, I'm looking forward to the weekend. Now, if I could just shake all this congestion in my head, I'd be set for business. The topic for this week's Friday Five linkup is ME. Yep, this week I'm talking about me, myself and I. This week's topic is


Five Things About Me

1. I'm a developer

From a post I wrote back when I worked for a startup.
I love programming. That's why I made it my day job. I started coding back in high school, by teaching myself HTML from a PDF document on the tags and coding on my graphing calculators. Yep, I started by programming on a TI-83 and TI-89. From there I went to school for it, got my B.S. and M.S. I code every day for work and even code extra personal projects for fun (though not nearly as much as I'd like). I love developing for the web and mobile the most. Coding is actually a fun and creative process, despite that many people think of it as purely analytical.

2. I'm a brother of Kappa Kappa Psi

This is from the very first moment I met my wife.
In college, I was a refounding father for my chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, the Zeta Alpha chapter. Kappa Kappa Psi is the national honorary band fraternity. It was a huge part of my college time and my life. I served as my chapter president and the district vice president. In fact, at the district convention when I was running for office, I met my future wife, which you can see above. That pictures is from probably about 1 minute after meeting her for the first time. I have lifelong friends, countless memories and a connection to people I've never met. It's hard to explain, but it there's an instant connection to other brothers. As an alumni, I'm not as active as I'd like to be, but I hope to work on that by helping with a local chapter and maybe becoming more active at a district level in some means.

3. I love playing sports

Starting pitcher for the Odd Balls. A good team name follow up to my college team, the Amputated Stumps.
I really enjoy running, but I also love playing sports. In college I coached and played on coed intramural softball and volleyball teams. After moving to Virginia, my wife and I played on a rec league softball team. Nothing serious, just a fun time. Unfortunately, we haven't played since that single year. I hope to try and find a team maybe this spring to play on and get back into it. It's a fun way to stay active that I really enjoy.

4. I love to cook

The ingredients for cheese beer soup. 1st ingredient: bacon, last ingredient: beer.
I've always loved to cook. My first job was working as a dishwasher in a kitchen. Over time I worked my way up to cooking on the line and even covering the kitchen myself during less busy times. I really enjoy trying new recipes, changing them, trying out something new. I love to eat, which pairs well with the love of cooking. I of course try to make conscious decision to use healthier options now when I cook. It's interesting how much you can change a recipe with substitutions to make it healthier, which can create a whole new but still delicious option. I have my favorite dishes to cook but I am always looking for new recipes and dishes to try out.

5. I love video games

She only pretends to play the Xbox right now, but looking forward to when we can play together.
The first video game console I ever owned was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). As a kid though, we always had the console just before the next came out. I got a SNES just before the N64, and so on. It wasn't until I was in high school, saving the money from the afore mentioned job, that I purchased an original Xbox on day one. I also, by chance, ended up purchasing a game I knew nothing about but was a first person shooter. That game is one of my all time favorites: Halo. I may not play games as often as I used to, but I still enjoy them just as much. My entertainment center currently has an Xbox 360 and Xbox One, so I still enjoy my escape into video game realities.

Linking Up

Check here for some links out to others sharing, staring with our three lovely hosts: CourtneyCynthia and Mar. Check their posts (Eat Pray Run DC, You Signed Up for What?! and Mar on the Run to see the full set of links). I will add some others, usually randomly, as I read them to share the love. Go visit and keep reading!


Our hosts:

You Signed Up for What?!

Mar on the Run

Eat, Pray, Run DC


Some other good reads, pulled from the link up:



35 comments:

  1. Pretty cool that you started programming on graphing calculators. I had both those calculators lol. Love playing sports too! When I was younger, we had the SNES and N64 too. The joys of having older brothers lol and I somewhat became a gamer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, when I wrote for the calculators it was half fun stuff and half stuff to make my life easier, like references, formula solvers, other calculations it didn't do by default. It was fun to play around with.

      Delete
  2. I have a CS degree but I was a much better debugger/troubleshooter than programmer. Starting from scratch was too hard, but I could understand programs and find the problems in something that existed! And I turned out to be a better software development project manager/team leader than hands-on anything with code. I think we had an old Atari (Space Invaders).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Debugging and troubleshooting is really its own valuable skill set. And being manager and leader that understands the technology even without needing to be hands on is invaluable as a programmer. They best ones I had were those that actually understood what I was doing.

      Delete
  3. My first game was Atari. Hours and hours of Asteroids and Space Invaders.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I came in after that but also always enjoyed the classic arcade games as well.

      Delete
  4. Neat! I remember using my TI-83 enjoying all the games on there :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My crowning moment was when a kid from the band came up to show me this awesome game he had on his calculator and it was my game.

      Delete
  5. We couldn't afford the Atari, but the kids who lived behind us had one and we played pac man on that thing for hours! And I can't tell you how much of my allowance was turned into quarters for the Ms. Pac Man game at the arcade. My husband is a big gaming fan (both console and PC) but the ones I like best are silly ones like Harvest Moon where you do fishing and farming! I don't have the reflexes for the fighting games!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love a lot of different games. My true game love is first person shooters but I peaked in Halo and Halo 2. I just dont have the time to play enough to really compete at as high of a skill level as I used to. I really enjoy the silky ones as well though. All about being a diversion and being enjoyable.

      Delete
  6. Band fraternity? I love it! I played in the band too! Cheese beer soup sounds amazing....cooking can be so much fun! And I'm so envious of people who are got at programming...I do NOT have a talent for it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep. It was a lot of fun to be a part of.

      It is delicious. A full post on it is in the queue.

      Its one of those things that just came naturally to me. I just tinkered with it until I understood it.

      Delete
  7. I didn't start cooking until I lived on my own (my mom's an amazing cook!) and I love trying out new recipes. I'm picky about what I'll eat, but if I find a recipe that I love all the ingredients for, I print it out and take it home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My mom always cooked a lot but my dad was a good cook too. He actually owned a catering business before I was born, before their hall burned down and he then got into IT. So he can hold his own. Though I love how he tells me when he was a caterer, what we know as delicious wings were pieces they threw out and couldn't even give away.

      Delete
  8. I don't play video games, but I would totally get sucked in. I wanted a Gameboy as a kid, but my mom wouldn't let me get one – probably for the best, considering how long I can play Run Sheldon on my phone these days ;)

    That beer cheese soup sounds delicious!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a good escape but time can disappear fast. Haha.

      It is delicious. Post hopefully coming soon. Just need to make it again to grab a couple of additional pictures

      Delete
  9. I love those team names you had :) I'm a fan of video games too but can't seem to do first person shooters. I find them disorienting. My usual genre is more like Final Fantasy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I can't take credit for Odd Balls but the Amputated Stumps was all me.

      Yeah, FPS isn't for everyone. I play all sorts of games, including strategy, puzzle, platformers, whatever. I need did get into FF, but I also didn't have a PlayStation.

      Delete
  10. So very cool that you have a photo from the first time you ever met your wife! Your job sounds interesting and I could bombard you for hours with questions about it if we were to ever talk in person..lol -M

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, its pretty great to actually have that picture. Pretty cool I think.

      Well, I love what I do so I could probably talk about it for hours, should that opportunity arise.

      Delete
  11. I loved reading this blog! We also got the game systems just as the newer edition was coming out so we were always a system behind, but the NES is still my fav!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you enjoy reading it. Makes me happy to hear. :-)

      I still love the classics. In one apartment in college, among the 4 of use we had 2 NES, 1 SNES, a PlayStation, an Xbox and an Xbox 360 all hooked up at once.

      Delete
  12. awesome- i love video games too. fun learning more about you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was fun to write. Can't wait until I have time this evening to go read a bunch of other's posts.

      Delete
  13. Oh please come cook for me. I wrote today that I do not like cooking! I do love sports though but I have never played an XBox game!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, I love cooking, so if I'm in the area, we'll see what we can work out, haha. I can barter with cooking.

      Delete
  14. We had an intellevison when I was a kid. It was in my parents bedroom and we could only play with their permission. I don't remember much about it except Tron and MLB home run

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah it was very much only with their permission always. I'm intrigued by a tron game. The ones I most vividly remember are duck hunt, RBI baseball and some racing one that the title slips my mind.

      Delete
  15. My first video game was Pong. I kid you not. I'm that old...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha. Also had an old DOS computer with nibbles, the game with two monkeys throwing exploding bananas (my favorite and great teacher of physics) and Wheel of Fortune on a REAL floppy disk.

      Delete
  16. I tried playing Mario and Donkey Kong when Nintendo first came out, but I was horrible. So I left that up to my husband and sons. I do like the phone apps....Bubble Witch is a favorite.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing wrong with those games. I enjoy my phone apps as well.

      Delete
  17. So great to read! I always enjoy learning a bit more about the people whose blogs I read :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I enjoyed writing it and going to other's blogs to read about them. Still have more I want to get through reading, haha.

      Delete